Angry Glenbard West hits back at Morton

Poor Morton.

Glenbard West is tough enough when it’s in a good mood, but the Hilltoppers definitely had something to prove in Saturday afternoon’s 68-7 drubbing of the Mustangs at Duchon Field in Glen Ellyn.

The Hilltoppers, playing angry after last week’s season-opening loss at Wheaton Warrenville South, rolled to a 41-0 halftime lead to earn a running clock the entire second half.

“Yeah, we kind of came out angry,” Hilltoppers offensive lineman Ted Clauss said. “We don’t like losing around here. Nobody does. We just really wanted to prove to the state that we shouldn’t be 0-1.”

“We were pretty motivated,” added senior linebacker Jordan Hassan. “We were pretty (mad). We were pretty hotheaded about it actually because we blew the game last week and we wanted to bounce back and we really did.”

The 17-14 loss at WW South led to an “intense” week at practice, Hassan said.

“We wanted everyone to do everything right every time just because if we make mistakes in practice we’ll make them in the game, and we learned from that,” Hassan added. “It was a pretty good practice week for us.”

Morton took the punishment from Glenbard West’s intense week. Scott Andrews scored the first of his 3 touchdowns to start the game, and quarterback Drew Vogg followed with a 24-yard TD pass to Hayden Carlson.

“That’s a good football team,” Morton coach Bob Organ said. “I mean that’s a great program. Obviously, coming off a state title he’s done a heck of a job. I mean (Glenbard West coach Chad Hetlet) and his staff, my gosh, my hat’s off to them. We knew we were into something that was pretty darn good obviously.

“We shot ourselves in the foot, not that it would have made any difference in the score, but we had some errors offensively early on. ... When you’re playing good football teams like Glenbard West, you cannot shoot yourself in the foot, and we did.”

Running backs Donahvon Vaughn and Jermon Kindle Joyner added touchdowns to make the score 41-0 at halftime earn the running clock.

“I thought the O-line just came out and blew them off the ball,” Hassan said. “It was great to see that. It was a key thing this week in practice.”

“We just really wanted to bounce back from last week and we wanted to put up a lot of points since last week we only put up 14, so it was on us,” Clauss added. “It starts with the offensive line, so we wanted to start fast and keep going all game, and we did.”

The Hilltoppers kept up the onslaught, this time while digging deep into their bench and without throwing a single pass after halftime. Sophomore Sam Brodner ran for touchdowns of 1 yard and 59 yards; Sean Mackey scored from 8 yards and Ryan McGee recovered a Morton fumble in the end zone for the final Glenbard West touchdown.

“Our backups are great, they give us a great look every day in practice,” Clauss said. “You’re going against a great scout team every single play. They’re kicking our (butts). It’s really good to have because then they come in the second half and put up a bunch of points. It’s good to count on them.”

“I was really happy with the way our backups came in and played extremely well,” Hetlet added. “We had a lot of second- and third-string guys playing against their starting offense and we gave up a score, but still we played extremely well against them.”

Morton broke up Glenbard West’s shutout bid with 9:06 left in the game when quarterback Emilio Engle ran 4 yards for a touchdown.

Glenbard West begins West Suburban Silver play next Friday at Downers Grove North.

Follow Orrin on Twitter @orrin_schwarz